Thought for the week

Published:06:50Sunday 31 August 2014

OK here’s the deal. I’m going to share a serious subject, next week I am going to just try to have a ‘Fun’... It has been a while, since 90 per cent of the stuff going on in our world is either so worth not thinking about or it is really serious business that we really should think about.

Fair enough? Well as I mostly say with a smile on my face - it doesn’t matter because that is what is going to happen. So smile for a moment, breath deeply...

We are at the point with social media that we are ready to kind of throw the baby out with the bath water on the ‘ice bucket challenge’. Now don’t get me wrong I got in on the deal as it seems about 90 per cent of everyone is trying to, blessings to all who get there and do that. The causes matter in the lives of many and may hit too close to home for many.

The start of it was the ALS, a seriously nasty thing to happen to anyone. It, being the Ice Bucket Challenge, has spread about to Macmillan Cancer Fund and I even challenged a friend in Africa to do it for Rotary International’s ‘End Polio Campaign’ or his local Rotary project of ‘clean water’ and for him not to waste the water where he is and just do it as an ‘Ice Glass’ Challenge. So a bit of fun to raise awareness and funds... good deal.

But this reminds me that some things in life are really nasty and devastating for those that have a whole host of things, some we barely know about. I know about ALS because I used to love baseball and Lou Gehrig was a famous player we’d all heard about. But all in all, it’s pretty rare so the needed attention and fund raising is great.

Here are a few re-written thoughts from Bo Stern whose husband has ALS: “The ice bucket challenge started cute and went out of control. But I (Bo) am glad because as I watch my husband become entombed in his own body, I feel desperate for people to understand that this sort of inhumane condition exists. So though some are cranky I say: ‘We are in the fight of our lives with this monster. Raise the roof! Raise a ruckus!’

“Here is what it is like to just get a tiny experience of ALS: Pick up a 10 pound weight and try to treat it like a fork and move it from your plate to your mouth repeatedly without shaking. Sit in a chair for 15 minutes moving nothing but your eyes. Nothing. No speaking, no scratching, no shifting, no changing the channel on the TV, no computer - only your eyes. This is your life. Your only life. Get used to the idea that you can never help those that help you get dressed, brush your teeth, eat your next meal, they have to do it all. How do you feel about that?

“Now put two big marshmallows in your mouth and try to carry on a conversation with your best friends. Go to bed for the night and don’t move or change position.”

Back to me: Sadly this is not the only condition that affects people. I just know that as I read these things and think that $80 Million has been raised to help others from a simple, silly campaign I think maybe despite the wickedness in our world there is still some hope.